- Joined
- May 17, 2023
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- 605
I thought a discussion on parasite solutions might be warranted as the invert pet industry seems rather introverted and lots of things remain unknown nor tested...and often without meaningful financial scale.
Loads of people that keep invertebrates as pets, breed them for work or otherwise are deeply involved might lend some new ideas that could be considered and tested from their experiences in other work or research.
On that note, my industry is agriculture, horticulture and general food industry.
Reading some posts here, and generally the decades of keeping numerous different species (mostly herps and inverts), the mite thing comes up often. While reptiles, dogs, cats etc are easier because we can poison bomb them without immediately killing the host, smaller pets cannot. Things like say frogs, spiders and other smaller and/or more sensitive creatures might succumb to more serious issues when given harsh chemical treatments.
On mites. Note, i have note tested these on my invert collections as I have a VERY strict quarantine and purchasing system, so touch wood, I haven't ever had mites on my inverts. Have had them on reptiles and furry critters.
Anyway, one of my jobs is organic agriculture, and pretty much by proxy we utilize biological pest control regularly, from bacteria to fungi to nematodes to insects and arachnids. Meaning using life to kill life, rather than chemicals to kill life.
For say mites on a centipede, spider etc larger bugs (eg. Ladybugs, lacewings etc or their larvae) would not be suitable based on size and also possible risk to the pet (or becoming food). Smaller is better.
For these I would be curious about predatory mites. We breed and use many species of predatory mites in AG, especially in greenhouse culture. The main target fornpeedatory mites is spider mites and there are species specifically raised for just those pests, even those that are used for web producing pests only.
Predatory mites can loosely be put into groups, what I would be interested in trying is type 3 and 4 predatory mites, which are species that are more opportunistic, not so prey specific. The worry being the pest mites found on our pets are surely a different size, color, flavor as the various spider mite species that suck on plant juices. These mites being small, also don't become spider food, they are tiny, and they can crawl around the spider and eat up all the parasitic mites that tend to colonize moist/soft spots of the host.
The worry I would have is species specific, not using a species that are known to also be able to feed on macro organisms or scraps (many will watch pollen and other vegetation) and slowly chew on them (for example the mites on people, dogs etc). One would want to specifically choose species that are both specific hunters on whole bodied organisms whilst not being too opportunistic and finding loose skin a meal as well.
If it were me, and I had a mite infestation on a spider, or beetle, centipede, scorpion etc., I would mostly likely toss the enclosure entirely, bleach the room, setup the animal In a very simplistic setup (no soil) in a dark room far removed from thevoriginal room (ideally a different building/location altogether). bare plastic, water dish style. depends on the species obviously. During the quarantine inrroduce the predatory mites (you get a pack, put a few in and let the rest out in the original room to go hunt out whatever the bleach missed), and let them run through the spiders' pests for a week or 2 in a dark room whilst allowing the mites in the house to slowly die off. Once cleared, resume normal caging.
This may or may not work, I have not tested it with pet spiders, but have for decades used them in plant operations. Unlike DE, boric acid, sprays etc that will almost certainly harm the pet, these predatory mites should just be walking around on the surface of the pet cleaning up the pests from every crevice. Ideally, dieing off when the food runs out.
Some thoughts.
Edit. Some non commercial references in case anyone is interested. Please post more if you have something interesting
link.springer.com
www.cambridge.org
Loads of people that keep invertebrates as pets, breed them for work or otherwise are deeply involved might lend some new ideas that could be considered and tested from their experiences in other work or research.
On that note, my industry is agriculture, horticulture and general food industry.
Reading some posts here, and generally the decades of keeping numerous different species (mostly herps and inverts), the mite thing comes up often. While reptiles, dogs, cats etc are easier because we can poison bomb them without immediately killing the host, smaller pets cannot. Things like say frogs, spiders and other smaller and/or more sensitive creatures might succumb to more serious issues when given harsh chemical treatments.
On mites. Note, i have note tested these on my invert collections as I have a VERY strict quarantine and purchasing system, so touch wood, I haven't ever had mites on my inverts. Have had them on reptiles and furry critters.
Anyway, one of my jobs is organic agriculture, and pretty much by proxy we utilize biological pest control regularly, from bacteria to fungi to nematodes to insects and arachnids. Meaning using life to kill life, rather than chemicals to kill life.
For say mites on a centipede, spider etc larger bugs (eg. Ladybugs, lacewings etc or their larvae) would not be suitable based on size and also possible risk to the pet (or becoming food). Smaller is better.
For these I would be curious about predatory mites. We breed and use many species of predatory mites in AG, especially in greenhouse culture. The main target fornpeedatory mites is spider mites and there are species specifically raised for just those pests, even those that are used for web producing pests only.
Predatory mites can loosely be put into groups, what I would be interested in trying is type 3 and 4 predatory mites, which are species that are more opportunistic, not so prey specific. The worry being the pest mites found on our pets are surely a different size, color, flavor as the various spider mite species that suck on plant juices. These mites being small, also don't become spider food, they are tiny, and they can crawl around the spider and eat up all the parasitic mites that tend to colonize moist/soft spots of the host.
The worry I would have is species specific, not using a species that are known to also be able to feed on macro organisms or scraps (many will watch pollen and other vegetation) and slowly chew on them (for example the mites on people, dogs etc). One would want to specifically choose species that are both specific hunters on whole bodied organisms whilst not being too opportunistic and finding loose skin a meal as well.
If it were me, and I had a mite infestation on a spider, or beetle, centipede, scorpion etc., I would mostly likely toss the enclosure entirely, bleach the room, setup the animal In a very simplistic setup (no soil) in a dark room far removed from thevoriginal room (ideally a different building/location altogether). bare plastic, water dish style. depends on the species obviously. During the quarantine inrroduce the predatory mites (you get a pack, put a few in and let the rest out in the original room to go hunt out whatever the bleach missed), and let them run through the spiders' pests for a week or 2 in a dark room whilst allowing the mites in the house to slowly die off. Once cleared, resume normal caging.
This may or may not work, I have not tested it with pet spiders, but have for decades used them in plant operations. Unlike DE, boric acid, sprays etc that will almost certainly harm the pet, these predatory mites should just be walking around on the surface of the pet cleaning up the pests from every crevice. Ideally, dieing off when the food runs out.
Some thoughts.
Edit. Some non commercial references in case anyone is interested. Please post more if you have something interesting
How to analyse prey preference when prey density varies? A new method to discriminate between effects of gut fullness and prey type composition - Oecologia
State-dependent changes in prey preference are among the phenomena to be expected in studies of predator behaviour. For example, the rate of attack on each prey type is well known to be affected by the state of satiation, the dynamics of which is often assumed to parallel that of gut fullness...
link.springer.com
Preselecting predatory mites for biological control: the use of an olfactometer | Bulletin of Entomological Research | Cambridge Core
Preselecting predatory mites for biological control: the use of an olfactometer - Volume 80 Issue 2
www.cambridge.org
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